After years of being thought-of as a nation of grumps and complainers,
Britain’s first ever national “happiness” index has disclosed that we are
surprisingly cheerful.

More than three quarters of the population rate themselves as satisfied or very satisfied with their lives and 80 per cent of Britons have a strong sense of self-worth.

Pensioners and teenagers emerge as the most contented members of society while married couples and home owners are also shown to be more satisfied with their lives than others.

Meanwhile women emerge as consistently more upbeat and content than men – if also more prone to bouts of anxiety.

Even those with serious or chronic illnesses displayed unexpectedly high levels of satisfaction with their lives.

The finding come from the first set of “well-being” figures published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of David Cameron’s £2 million-a-year project to measure the nation’s happiness.

More than 160,000 people were asked a series of questions about their lifestyle, health, and home-life before being asked to rate how satisfied they felt with their life overall on a scale of nought to 10.

They were also asked how “worthwhile” they felt their lives are as well as two snapshot questions about how “happy” they felt the previous day and how “anxious” they had been.

Overall people in rural areas emerged as generally more contented than those in towns and cities.

People in the West Midlands and London emerged as the most depressed – with the lowest scores for both general well-being feeling that their lives were worthwhile. Meanwhile Londoners are also by far the most anxious people in Britain.

The highest levels of well-being were to be found in northern Scotland, especially in the Western Isles, Shetland and Orkney.

By far the happiest pockets of England are Rutland and the area around Bath in the Somerset. The happiest region of England is the South East – excluding London – with 78.5 per cent classing themselves as satisfied with life.

Among the most politically significant findings was that almost half of unemployed people rate their satisfaction with life as low or very low – worse than expected – and that contentment is significantly lower among some ethnic minorities than the “white” population.

But the findings appear to provide the first solid evidence to support the optimistic adage that life begins at 60.

While those in their 40s and 50s are significantly more likely to be dissatisfied with their lives and have low sense of worth than all other age groups, their outlook improved markedly as they reach retirement age.

People aged 60 to 64 rated their happiness on average at 7.5 out of 10, a score which rises to 7.8 by the time they are in their late 70s.

On all of the key measures pensioners outperform the rest of the population with the exception of teenagers who also display higher levels of happiness and worth but which fall sharply the time they reach their 20s.

The finding which surprised the statisticians most was when levels of well-being were compared with people’s rating of their own health.

Although those with good health were more likely to have a sense of well-being and self-worth overall, the study found surprising levels of happiness among people with chronic illnesses.

Almost one in five people classed as in “very bad” health had a very high sense that their lives were worthwhile overall 40 per of them were generally content.

Dr Ros Altmann, Director General of Saga, said the study showed that the idea that life goes “downhill” in retirement is a myth.

She added that a “stiff upper lip” attitude was also proving to be the secret of happiness for some.

“A lot of people we encounter especially in the upper age range tend to look for the positive, people who are able to do that, even though they might not have perfect health, are likely to have higher quality of life.”

Glenn Everett, the ONS’s programme director, said statisticians had not yet “nailed” the art of measuring well-being but that the findings would help shape future Government policy.

“By examining and analysing both objective statistics as well as subjective information, a more complete picture of National Well-being can be formed,” he said.

“Understanding people's views of well-being is an important addition to existing Official Statistics and has potential uses in the policymaking process and to aid other decision making.”